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Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour
Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is the fourth installment of the Modern Combat franchise. It was unofficially announced on September 21, and was released December 6th, 2012. Gameplay Gameplay in Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is similar to that of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The player can control their character with a virtual joystick on the left side of the screen, while looking around the game's environments is controlled by swiping or dragging on the screen. Players can also crouch, throw grenades, use the weapon's iron sights, reload, change weapon, pick up different weapons, knife enemies, mantle obstacles and shoot using buttons and prompts on the touch screen. The knifing feature has changed compare to the previous games. In the game in which when a player comes close to an enemy, the fire button switches to a melee button. Graphics has significantly changed compared to Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation. Ground sliding has been significantly shorter compare to sliding in Fallen Nation. Military Support has completely changed as a new feature to the franchise. The military support has been reduced to 3 during multiplayer gameplay but is also customizable in the armory. There are 9 available kill streaks in military support. In multiplayer, players now buy weapons instead of unlocking them when they rank up. Players can also jump over cover, objects, ledges, and any obstacles which is also a new feature in multiplayer. Plot Set a few years after Fallen Nation, the campaign of Zero Hour is all about saving the president. The campaign starts with Edward Page attacking the WCIB as a distraction of a large attack on the C3 summit in Hawaii. Saunders Global Security (SGS) is a group of mercenaries who are hired for the security of the summit. Suddenly, the SGS begins to take hostages. President Burke is one of them. The US send a large army to the summit to secure it. While Page is underway to Hawaii, Corporal Joel Blake arrives at the Red Summit with a small squad of US soldiers, led by Lieutenant James Walker, the protagonist of Fallen Nation. They storm their way through the beach, and receive word that another allied team is pinned down by the SGS Militia. The team make their way to them, and discover that the president of the United States has been taken hostage by Edward Page, the client of SGS. Intel confirms Everett Saunders (a former US Special Force in the same unit with Page) is somewhere in the city of Barcelona, so Walker, Blake and Lieutenant Downs (a major NPC in Black Pegasus and Fallen Nation) are dispatched to find him and extract information on where Page may have taken the president. They locate Saunders and try to arrest him, but Blake needs to throw him off a balcony to save Walker. The team is then sent to the SGS base in South Africa. Upon attacking the base, Blake is knocked out of his helicopter and forced to fight his way through the base alone. He rescues the president and then reunites with Walker and Downs. The president retrieved information indicating that Page is holding up in a base in Antarctica. The team is dispatched, and discover that Page plans to fire a bioweapon capable of killing about 4 billion people, in an effort to "restart" the human race. After fighting their way through the Antarctic Unified Citizens base and locating a biolab, they realise that the biolab that they are in contains the bioweapon that is capable of killing 4 billion people. Anderson and Blake are ordered to wait for a hazmat team to arrive, however, Anderson disobeys orders. He orders Blake to open the door leading into the room where the bioweapon canisters are. Blake does so, but Anderson pushes Blake off his feet, and rushes into the lab, breaking the electronic lock so no one can enter, and begins planting bombs on the bioweapon canisters. However, Anderson is attacked and stabbed by Page whilst planting the bombs. Before he dies, Anderson tells Blake to detonate the bombs. Blake does so, with the blast killing Anderson and incapacitating Page. When Page regains consciousness, he finds that US soldiers are breaking into the base and are destroying his bioweapon. Realising that he is defeated, an enraged Page fights his way through the base and attacks Downs and Walker, shooting Downs in the arm and fighting with Walker. Page overpowers Walker and is about to kill him, however, Blake kills Page, and he and Walker assist Downs in fleeing the building before it blows up. In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Saunders is alive. He states that he was using Page all along, and that he has already put in motion the first part of a terrorist attack of his own, claiming that soon they "will know the true meaning of terror." Summary #* Page and Saunders attack the WCIB and steal drone network codes. #* Meanwhile, SGS forces take over the C3 summit and take the president hostage. # Page travels to Hawaii, Saunders travels to Barcelona. # The US army attacks the C3 summit. # Page takes the president to the SGS base in South Africa. # Phantom Unit is sent to arrest Saunders in Barcelona. # Phantom Unit takes back the hard drive with drone codes from Saunders. # Phantom Unit reports that Saunders has been killed in action. # The US army attacks the SGS base. # Page flies to the Unified Citizens base in Antarctica. # Blake secures the president. # Phantom Unit is sent to the Unified Citizens base to take it out. # Anderson is killed by Page. # Page is killed by Blake. # Blake blows up the base. Missions * Red Summit * Unified Terror * Aftermath * New World Order * Threatcon Delta * Manhunt * Critical Path * Terminus * Hammerstrike * Operation Shogun * Cold Vengeance * Extreme Sanction Announcement Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour was unveiled September 21st during an event in Tokyo. A small teaser premiered, and later, on weapons, maps, game modes, grenades and military support were slowly released on the Modern Combat website. Development The game has a multidimensional perspective. In other words, the player can play from the perspective of both the protagonist(s) and the antagonist. A new character, Joel Blake, and both Downs and Anderson from Black Pegasus and Fallen Nation return, making them the most frequently seen characters in the entire franchise. Walker also returns from Modern Combat 3. Edward Page returns as the antagonist. All animations have been re-done using motion capture technology. Polygons have been increased, allowing for smoother in-game objects. The game runs on the Havok engine, allowing for considerably advanced graphics, animations, and scripting. Weapons Just like Fallen Nation, Zero Hour features 21 weapons, ranging from assault rifles, SMGs, handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. Unlike Fallen Nation, SMGs are now secondaries and shotguns are primaries. Multiplayer Gameloft completely revised their multiplayer service. Now, they included a tactical movement system, a first for Modern Combat, which allows the player to mantle over barriers, a feature which was previously only available for Campaign modes. They also added more attachments to their weapons, allowing for full weapon customization (excluding camos). A rifle can have as many as 5 attachments at once, one from each category. The player can scroll through the menu, while watching the weapon change in real-time when an attachment is selected. Military Support now has to be purchased (once) in the Armory, and is set specifically for each weapon kit, unlike in Fallen Nation, whereas the player had all available during the match. For Wi-Fi only games, all weapons, attachments, weapon kits, specializations, grenades, and military support are automatically unlocked, so the player can use all weapons, attachments, etc. without buying them. Reception Just like the games that came out before it, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour was met with positive reviews. Critics praised the game's visuals, gameplay, and multiplayer. However, several reviewers had noted that the Modern Combat series felt "stagnant". The iOS version holds aggregate scores of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on seventeen reviews. However, since the introduction of Modern Combat 5: Blackout, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour's reviews have gone up. Many community members agree that Modern Combat 4 is superior to MC5.Citation needed Updates Since it's release in 2012, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour has received two updates with two pieces of downloadable content: Content Pack * Tygr X3 - An automatic SMG, the Tygr X3 boasts excellent accuracy despite it's small size, making it one of the deadliest SMGs available. * Compakt-665 - An automatic assault rifle, the Compakt-665 is a solid multi-purpose weapon offering the perfect balance between damage, rate of fire, accuracy and mobility. Meltdown Update The second update "Meltdown Update" was released on June 19 2013 and included 2 new weapons, 3 maps and a new specialization. * SFS CTK-12: A semi-automatic sniper rifle with a 10 round magazine. * 40mm Thor GLP: A single-shot Grenade launching Pistol. * 3 New maps ** Fracture ** Extraction ** Backfire) * 2 new game modes ** Bomb Squad ** Destruction) * New perks ** Ammo Pack ** Dedication ** Readied Shot ** One Last Thing ** Gun Expert ** Sentry ** Paragon Destroyer Trivia * Various MC3 weapons have been seen in many pictures on the website. * Various MC3 animations have been copied into Modern Combat 4. * This is the first game since MC2 to include 4 playable characters. Those being Carter (drone specialist), Edward Page (antagonist), Joel Blake (Phantom Unit soldier) and Anderson (AFTER operative). * Lieutenant Warrens probably returns in the mission Aftermath. He is not playable and is only heard. * Modern Combat 4 is the only game in the series to use the Havoc physics engine. External links * In-game music on Soundcloud References